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"Anyway," she says with much difficulty "There’s a music showcase down at E around with drums and Alice in Chains covers You should come, and educate yourself on the nore the fact you -"

Yvette suddenly repurposes a vast amount of soup as floor cleaner "That I what?" She snaps

"Uh, nothing Nevermind Yeah, I’ll come Is there a cover fee, or?"

She relaxes visibly "It’s free I’ll see you at seven, then?"

I ansith a uitar rift, and she smirks and leaves I takesun paints everything in pale golds and silvers The tree shadows grow long, tangling in the shadows of passerbys and untangling again

And that’s when I see hiives a sputter, and I forget how to s My skin crawls, hot at first, then so terribly cold I , andfor all the exits off the terrace – the stairs, the back stairs, through the cafeteria and out the door I don’t even think about it, I just do it I’ as I pick upflash, two seconds is all it takes, two seconds and the terror has a complete and total hold over me as I dash inside the cafeteria and watch hih the

Curly, dark brown hair falls into his eyes Steel-colored eyes, a blue so dark you can’t see the light through the, both sharp, both can kill you He killed a little part of me His eyebrows are thick and his mouth pleasant, and if you squint he could be in a British boy-band, maybe, possibly The freckles on his nose are still there, the freckles I’d written stupid poetry about He’s taller than I remember – taller than e, he’s been lifting and it’d irl swoon but it just ht here, all over the potted plant I’ behind But above the panic-static that’s currently turning my brain to mush, another part of ! Here!

Here, of all places, here, of all godda a friend, or so within the same ten miles of me He can’t be He just can’t I came here to avoid him I moved to an entire state to leave hiain No, shit, there’s no way he’s here just foreasp effort taunts, his way of – of – of what? Somewhere in the back ofdark and hard Triggered His way of triggering et to see me reirl with honey-colored hair and huge gray eyes behind glasses blinks at me She smells faintly of musky roses My stellar powers of observation alert er than Kayla’s and a thick, soft, belly, but I barely register it through my haze of panic

"I’h

"Yeah you look like crap," The girl covers her ht now you look sick, is all Bad-sick Not, uinning to gleam in my eyes as history unfurls and I discover the only person on the planet Earth whostupid puns And having fabulous curves And s like roses But then I re a mild panic attack

"You are really cute and all," I say quickly "But I’oes to this college, which is extrerossness You probably don’t want to stick around for soross as, like, a vat of Nickelodeon sliet back in theterrorized helplessly, I’d appreciate it"

Glasses-girl frowns, and searches the crowd "He terrorizes you? I’m so not doith that, fryslice Which one is he?"